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David Yeagley 
Comanche Patriot
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 25577
Joined: Sep. 2002
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Posted on: May 25 2004,10:32 |
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by David Yeagley
It seems Farah Diba Pahlavi’s book of memoirs, Enduring Love, has stirred up a lion’s den, and the claws are lashing out in all directions. Yet the commotion is generally the screeches of angry little cubs, whose tiny fangs hardly disturb the great monarchs of the pride.
Farah Diba Pahlavi, Empress, indeed ‘Lioness’ of Iran, is truly one of the most noble, grand, and beautiful persons ever to have reigned anywhere. It is only natural that the purity of her soul should stir the envy and resentment of lesser beings. They have maligned Farah’s entire purpose in writing her memoirs. They writhe in personal venom and professional immaturity.
Farah Diba Pahlavi, Empress of Iran. Photo by Juana Arias, Washington Post
Among the nastiest little felines is Elaine Sciolino, whose recent (May 2) New York Times review of Enduring Love rather displays, indirectly, her own enduring devotion to the present leader of Iran, President Hojjatoleslam Mohammud Khatami. In “The Last Empress,” Sciolino is determined to intellectually denigrate and morally denounce the deposed and departed Shah, and by so doing to egregiously belittle Farah’s devotion to her beloved husband, and to make the present regime appear salubrious.
But her rancor against Farah is paramount. She thinks Farah is psychologically inhibited by romantic fixation. “Doctor” Sciolino says Farah is “in denial,” and “full of anger and bitterness.”
I wonder if President Khatami inquired about Sciolino’s professional qualifications as an ‘international psychologist’ when he engaged her to interview he and his wife back in 2000. Sciolino has been singing his praises ever since. Her book Persian Mirrors hailed Khatami as a virtual mehdi of Iran.
But it seems that Sciolino has abandoned all concept of fidelity and devotion in marriage when it comes to assessing the Empress of Iran. It seems Sciolino cannot comprehend the meaning of love and family.
I first encounterd Elaine Sciolino’s slant on things at the Iranian Studies Conference (May 25-28, 2000) held in Bethesda, MD. (I was there to present my first paper to the ISC, “Zoroaster and the Jews.”) Sciloino was one of the guest speakers at the important evening meeting for the general conference audience. Baquer Moin (BBC) was the real star journalist there speaking, and Elaine, along with Jacki Lyden, paled in comparison. I must say, the women were too personal, to the point of mere gossip. They had sophisticated style, but, they never rose above the level of local hairdresser talk.
Elaine went on and on about Zahra Esraqi, the wife of President Khatami. The august audience at the conference was forced to listen to minutia about Zahra’s personality, and her concern over the media’s view of her hairdo. I knew then that Elaine’s emphasis on the personal would never allow her to rise to the level of serious political conversation. Elaine was not a serious writer, but wrote only ‘human interest’ pieces, as an entertainer.
She hasn’t changed. Her review of Enduring Love is nothing more than a personal, vicious sort of criticism of Farah Diva Pahlavi. But the criticism is self-revealing. It is Elaine who denies the Empress the right to love her husband. It is Elaine who sounds full of bitterness and anger over some failed romance, and too miserably envious to admit another woman’s superior experience.
And history? It wouldn’t matter to Elaine that it was Farah who created the institution called “Dialogue of Civilizations” in 1974, and not her hero President Khatami in 1997, as Michael Rubin tried to suggest, and for which Khatami himself is willing to take credit, as is also the United Nations. No, Elaine says it’s Farah who is lost in the past, trying to re-write history!
I say Elaine is a mere hireling preoccupied with praising Khatami and publishing grotesque inaccuracies and hideous allegations about the Shah in order to make the present regime look better. Her effrontery indulges defamatory language on one of the finest women in the modern world, so it must be worth it to her in terms more valuable than her reputation as an international gossip columnist.
Sciolino wrote that Iranian people were the most warm and hospitable in the world. They are indeed, but I wonder if she’s talking about the restaurants of Teheran, or the common people of Neshabur. Has she ever been to the remote villages to the east? Mention the name of Farah there, and watch the eyes of the people. Speak her name, and you will see their hearts glow with even the memory of her. Their souls enliven with such luster as befits the monarch in them all.
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Nora
Group: Members
Posts: 1750
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: May 28 2004,13:06 |
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It is really very simple. Farah Diba is an extraordinarily beautiful woman who oozes privilege. And, worst of all, she has the non-politically correct temerity to having been devoted to a man. (Yuckk, a MAN!!!)
(The glamorous and privileged Princess Diana was so much loved by the brainwashed middle-classes because she "socked it to" a man -- her husband. Feminist brainwashing is even stronger than class envy and spite, or so it seems...)
What else can be the reason that the little ankle-biters get out and at her?
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David Yeagley
Comanche Patriot
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 25577
Joined: Sep. 2002
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Posted on: May 28 2004,15:17 |
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Nora, your humor is always so very powerful! I hope everyone "gets" it. I have much appreciated your insights here on BadEagle, and it is a special privilege to have them.
If I may display my "humility," I think your thoughts are often so acuminate, or aciculate, that the hastey or careless reader often feels stung rather than enlightened.
I can only encourage you to persevere. As host, I have always felt honored by your contributions. I have certainly learned from your observations.
I will also confess, again, that I often find myself seeing things that others don't see, and blind to things they find outrageous. These are my 'conditions' as a person. I see great love and all attending glories in Farah. Many, many others feel great animosity and resentment of her.
One wonders if perspective is something that can be adjusted.
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| Post Number: 4
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Nora
Group: Members
Posts: 1750
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: May 28 2004,15:32 |
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I wasn't being humorous, not in the least.
If something or somebody is very special, the mediocre will always hate it.
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Alligator
Group: Awaiting Authorisation
Posts: 1133
Joined: Jan. 2003
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Posted on: May 28 2004,15:40 |
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The weasels in the media spend their time going after someone like this and pretend as though she and his family were the worst thing that has ever happened to Iran. They were civilized people and Iran was once a bright spot in the otherwise dreary landscape of the Middle East.
In the meantime, the media weasels take great pains to ignore the thugs, murderers and bandits who have taken over Iran and openly threaten to bring death and destruction to the West.Iranian Official Threatens Suicide and Missle Attacks It is insane to ignore the ravings of psycopaths, especially when it is proven that they have delivered on their threats in the past and are working on ways to enhance their delivery systems (missles and homicide attacks). Dr. Y, you said you've met Ms. Sciolino. Would she look good in a buhrka?
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SheDesigns
Group: Members
Posts: 2508
Joined: Mar. 2004
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Posted on: May 28 2004,16:36 |
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| Quote (Nora @ May 28 2004,3:06) | | (The glamorous and privileged Princess Diana was so much loved by the brainwashed middle-classes because she "socked it to" a man -- her husband. |
Nora, I thought your answer was powerful and humorous, which makes it even more clear. 
One thing that got revealed during the many stories about Diana and Charles, was that she knew that Charles was having an affair with Camilla during their courtship and engagement, but went ahead and married him anyway.
Even at 19 you KNOW when not to do something wrong. I'm sure she wanted the glamor and the fame. But what kind of man would marry, with a mistress on the side? Is this the story of Royals???
Farah Diba Pahlavi's devotion could have only be given to such a man worthy of it. It must be that the Shah was such.
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| Post Number: 7
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David Yeagley
Comanche Patriot
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 25577
Joined: Sep. 2002
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Posted on: May 28 2004,18:51 |
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I rarely post poetry under any forum but the Poetry Forum. However, the world desperately needs love at this time. I would cherish every example of it.
From one of the great Romantics of all time, Lord Byron, here are two poems, "Stanzas to Augusta," in which Byron praises the love she showed to him. No, we don't have to go into the sordid details of Byron's personal life, but, these words are compelling. I've always said, wisdom is taught by the foolish.
Stanzas To Augusta I
When all around grew drear and dark,
And Reason half withheld her ray ---
And Hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way;
In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When dreading to be deemed too kind,
The weak despair --- the cold depart;
When Fortune changed --- and Love fled far,
And Hatred's shaft flew thick and fast,
Thou wert the solitary star
Which rose and set not to the last.
Oh ! blest be thine unbroken light !
That watched me as a Seraph's eye,
And stood between me and the night,
For ever shining sweetly nigh.
And when the cloud upon us came,
Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray ---
Then purer spread its gentle flame,
And dashed the darkness all away.
Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,
And teach it what to brave or brook ---
There's more in one soft word of thine
Than in the world's defied rebuke.
Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,
That still unbroke, though gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity
Its boughs above a monument.
The winds might rend --- the skies might pour,
But there thou wert --- and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour
To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.
But thou and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;
For Heaven in sunshine will requite
The kind --- and thee the most of all.
Then let the ties of baffled love
Be broken --- thine will never break;
Thy heart can feel --- but will not move;
Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.
And these, when all was lost beside,
Were found and still are fixed in thee; ---
And bearing still a breast so tried,
Earth is no desert --- ev'n to me.
Stanzas to Augusta II
Though the day of my Destiny's over,
And the star of my Fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find;
Though thy Soul with my grief was acquainted,
It shrunk not to share it with me,
And the Love which my Spirit hath painted
It never hath found but in Thee.
Then when Nature around me is smiling,
The last smile which answers to mine,
I do not believe it beguiling,
Because it reminds me of thine;
And when winds are at war with the ocean,
As the breasts I believed in with me,
If their billows excite an emotion,
It is that they bear me from Thee.
Though the rock of my last hope is shivered,
And its fragments are sunk in the wave,
Though I feel that my soul is delivered
To Pain --- it shall not be its slave,
There is many a pang to pursue me;
They may crush, but they shall not contemn ---
They may torture, but shall not subdue me ---
'Tis of Thee that I think --- not of them.
Though human, thou didst not deceive me,
Though woman, thou didst not forsake,
Though loved, thou forborest to grieve me,
Though slandered, thou never couldst shake, ---
Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me,
Though parted, it was not to fly,
Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me,
Nor, mute, that the world might belie.
Yet I blame not the World, nor despise it,
Nor the war of the many with one;
If my Soul was not fitted to prize it,
'Twas folly not sooner to shun:
And if dearly that error hath cost me,
And more than I once could foresee,
I have found that, whatever it lost me,
It could not deprive me of Thee.
From the wreck of the past, which hath perished,
That much I at least may recall,
It hath taught me that what I most cherished
Deserved to be dearest of all:
In the Desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of Thee.
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| Post Number: 8
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Nora
Group: Members
Posts: 1750
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: May 29 2004,04:41 |
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| Quote (SheDesigns @ May 29 2004,12:36) | | Farah Diba Pahlavi's devotion could have only be given to such a man worthy of it. It must be that the Shah was such. |
SD, I don't think a husband has to "qualify" for a wife's loyalty. Yes, I think it is loyalty and not "love" she owes him.
I have stated here before that marriage is not made for love or (heavens forbid!) "romance" and I have been called a feminist and worse because of it.
I'll repeat briefly the essence: Marriage used to be until very recently for political/dynastic purposes in the upper classes, for financial purposes in the middle classes and for sheer survival during old age in the working classes. To expect personal happiness (which is mostly defined as "romance" nowadays) it is the wrong institution and therefore so many marriages fail.
No woman HAS to marry anymore, nowadays. Thanks to equality feminism, a woman can stay on her own and do what she likes, albeit without the status and more often than not in poorer financial circumstances, but she can't have it both ways as gender feminism suggests.
If a woman accepts status and financial security from a husband she owes him two things: Loyalty and that the children are his. Diana has delivered neither, Farah Diba obviously did. That has nothing to do with the quality of the men involved. Nobody besides the closest circles knew of Camilla Parker Bowles before Diana made it public and she could be still alive and Princess of Wales had she known her place and hadn't she bitten the hand that fed her. She brought it all on herself. We don’t know what man Reza Pahlevi really was, but what we know for sure is that Farah Diba is one hell of a woman!
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| Post Number: 9
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exile
Group: Members
Posts: 390
Joined: Jan. 2003
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Posted on: May 29 2004,13:34 |
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Very well stated , Nora. No...it is beautifully stated. You have cut to the chase in regard to the whole function of marriage. I speak from the vantage point of one who will soon be celebrating 49 years of marriage ( thanks mainly to the fortitude and loyalty of a wonderful woman who has prodded me, supported me and taught me to be a half-decent human being).
I have often wondered about the great and even speedy condemnation of the Shah. Remembering back to the time when he took the Peacock Throne, he refused to be crowned "king of a land of beggars". Nineteen years later he was to have a full coronation....after Iran had become one of the most enlightened nations of the Near East, where lands had been redistributed, a middle, 'professional' class of both men and women had come into being. The Empress was the true jewel in the crown: serene, beautiful and well-educated, what people should not have taken pride in such a national symbol , who just happened to be an excellent example to Iran's women ? It has long been a matter of shame to me as an American citizen, that my nation treated him so shabbily after the Clergy siezed control of the country. Very ill and dying, the poor man had scarcely a place to lay his head. We, who were counted among his best friends, turned our governmental back on him. Much of what we face today might have been considerably less troublesome and murderous had we helped to maintain the influence of his more enlightened nation and his regime.
The clergy hated the Empress. The Ayatollah was not too different from John Knox in his hatred and fear of Mary Queen of Scots. She too was too beautiful, too well-educated. Of all of the monarchs of Europe, Mary stood up to her own church and to her own parliament in her view that peoples of different faiths could live in the same land together. The Empress Farah must have chilled the fundamentalist clergy to the bone. How could they begin to understand such a woman?
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"Lean gu dluth ri cliu do shinnsreadh" ( Follow closely to the reknown of your ancestors)
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Guest
Unregistered
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Posted on: May 29 2004,14:28 |
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Dave,
Can you tell me how you post pictures?
Thanks,
Pake
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